New year brings rush-hour tows to busy bridge

NEW ORLEANS - The new year is bringing free rush-hour tow trucks to help keep traffic flowing on one of the nation's busiest bridges.

The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development says a tow truck will be stationed on the Crescent City Connection Bridge for three hours in the morning and three in the evening on weekdays.

The department says in a news release that the bridge is the nation's fifth busiest, with more than 156,000 vehicles crossing it daily and more than 33 million a year.

It operates two other Motorist Assistance Patrol tow services on Interstate 10 bridges: one on the Mississippi River Bridge in Baton Rouge and the other on the High Rise Bridge in eastern New Orleans.